This Blog is a living organism! It has a soul of its own! Its founder: "The Grand Wizard of the Inter-Galactic JIZFI Movement" made it - the movement's official "Daily"! Consult your Doctor before going any farther!
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Alexander Munch 1948-2012
Alexander Munch has passed away in his sleep while suffering a cardiac arrest. This Blogger account will no longer be active. Goodbye Dad.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Thursday, May 24, 2012
A storm within the storm
Christians in Egypt: A storm within the storm
CAIRO – With fluffy beige pillows propped behind her still recovering back, Evon Mossad takes a deep breath and reclines on a velvet couch in her apartment in a middle class suburb of Cairo.The 53-year-old Coptic Christian woman reflected on what has happened just seven months after an evening of violence which became a defining moment for many in Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority.
“What happened after? Nothing,” says Mossad, who emerged from the incident badly bruised and became an activist and community organizer. “Nothing has changed, except there’s more fear and anxiety.”
Seven months ago, Mossad says she was in the crowd of protesters when she was suddenly assaulted and beaten by an officer who called her an “infidel.” The demonstration erupted into a horrific night of brutality in which 27 people were killed and hundreds injured in clashes between Egyptian security forces and mainly Coptic Christian demonstrators who were protesting against an attack on a church by Islamic extremists.
In Egypt’s sequence of bloody flashpoints since the January 25 uprising, the event is known simply as “Maspero,” the state TV building where demonstrators rallied against what Copts saw as indifference to the attack on a church.
In the aftermath of Maspero, though in great physical pain and mournful over the deaths of friends, Mossad was wheeled around Cairo’s Coptic Hospital, visiting other victims and encouraging them to keep up the fight for their rights. She encouraged them not to lose hope that the violence might produce a productive turning point in Egypt’s often stilted discourse around the rights of its Christian minority.
But, as it turned out, Maspero was not so much a turning point for Copts as it was an open wound, and one that Mossad says is still healing. Copts have suffered discrimination throughout hundreds of years of history in Egypt. Individual Copts have also been great Egyptian nationalists and leading thinkers, industrialists and artists who are frequently quick to point out that Muslims and Christians are like brothers in Egypt. It’s a complex relationship – as fraught as any sibling rivalry. But what is clear as Egypt takes its first faltering steps toward electing a civilian president, is that a democracy and the constitution upon which it is based are defined in how the rights of minorities are protected. Today Copts are left wondering and worrying about their place in a new Egypt.
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Wednesday, May 23, 2012
1st casualty
Via "Nerva":-
1st casualty of the election. This could be serious
ahramonline BREAKING
Police officer shot outside polling station
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/42444.aspx
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My Twitt to "Nerva" 8h ago...
@abuamnon
Today, if just one Egyptian looses even one eye, I'll consider the revolution - a failure!
(Too harsh?)
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DEMOCRACY WAS BORN!
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Egypt, the original heart of the Arab Spring, goes to the polls this Wednesday and Thursday to elect a new president, and the Obama administration’s favored choice, Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, may emerge the victor. “He could be the president who puts Egypt on a path towards genuine democracy,” says one U.S. official. But the self-styled “liberal” Islamist is no moderate.One of the two front-running candidates (along with Amr Moussa, 75, a former foreign minister under Mubarak and most recently secretary-general of the Arab League), Fotouh, 61, is a doctor and former member of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose political party took nearly 50 percent of the seats in parliamentary elections and is the best-organized political force in the country. He served for 25 years in the Brotherhood’s leadership body before being expelled last year when he defied the group’s leaders to run for the presidency.
Fotouh is described as a reformist member of the organization, and as such has received support from younger Brothers, even though the Brotherhood is putting forth its own candidate, Mohammed Morsi. Fotouh is viewed as more liberal than the other Islamists in the race, prompting comparisons to Turkey’s Recep Erdogan. That would be the same Erdogan who proclaimed that “there is no moderate Islam,” who advised Turkish immigrants in Europe that “assimilation is a crime against humanity,” who has taken an increasingly bellicose stance toward Israel – and who is a favorite of Obama in the Middle East.
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Tuesday, May 22, 2012
The "Zabalin"
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CAIRO – Election fever has even come to Cairo's Garbage City, the sprawling neighborhood built on — and living from — the waste of the Egyptian capital.
The tens of thousands of impoverished residents of the district are almost all Christians. For generations, they have collected the garbage from the city of nearly 20 million; they sort it then recycle and sell what they can. Their homes are built in and around piles of the refuse, where their livestock graze.
Like other Egyptians, they are now savoring the prospect of having their voice heard as the country begins voting on Wednesday for a new president, the first since the ouster last year of longtime leader Hosni Mubarak.
The overwhelming concern for many of them is to stop any Islamist candidate from winning. Many of Egypt's Christian minority — about 20 percent of the population of 85 million — are worried that if the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood candidate wins and moved to implement Islamic law, they will suffer greater discrimination.
As a result, many are turning to the most anti-Islamist candidate on the slate of 13 hopefuls — Ahmed Shafiq, a former air force commander who was Mubarak's last prime minister.
Anwar Rizk, a garbage collector in the neighborhood, says he's backing Shafiq because "I fear the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis," referring to a movement of ultraconservative Islamists. "We have Muslims living here as our brothers in very good conditions, but I fear the Muslim Brotherhood because they are only after their own good."
His fellow resident, Iskandar Shafiq — no relation to the candidate — agrees and is also impressed by the candidate's strongman image.
"Honestly we are going to elect Ahmed Shafiq because he is the one that can provide safety and security," he said. "We feel this man is a politician like no other and frankly we have always known this man as a politician."
Along with Shafiq, the other front-runners in the contest are former foreign minister Amr Moussa; the Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi; and a moderate Islamist, Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh, who has gained support from some liberals for his more open views. A leftist, Hamdeen Sabahi, has also gained ground among those who want neither an Islamist nor a former regime figure. Though few Christians are likely to vote for the Brotherhood's Morsi, the community's vote could be divided among the others.
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IROOON farts again!
Renewed Iranian Calls for Israel’s ‘Annihilation’
.Monday, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Yukiya Amano met with Fereidoun Abbasi-Davani, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), in an initial conference over Iran’s nuclear program. The Iranian Fars News Agency said the meeting represented the ”eagerness” of the UN to “further develop cooperation with Iran in various areas of nuclear applications,” and it is clear the rosiness of the state media’s characterization is not without good reason. For, while the West is banking everything on an appeasement strategy with Iran, the Islamic Republic is busy broadcasting to the world its Hitlerian intentions to annihilate Israel, daring the international community to bat an eyelash.
Renewed talks with Iran come on the heels of a speech delivered Sunday by Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, Iran’s military chief of staff, in which he called for the “full annihilation of Israel.” Like every other Iranian pronouncement revealing the murderous nature of the current regime, it will likely be brushed aside when negotiations between Iran and P5+1, (the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain plus Germany), begin in Baghdad tomorrow.
Amano’s rare trip to Iran marks the fourth meeting between the IAEA and Tehran. Two rounds of talks took place in Tehran in January and February this year, followed by a third round in Vienna on May 14-15. Yet despite reports of a more “upbeat atmosphere” both last week and yesterday, a large degree of genuine substance apparently remains beyond reach. “We have extensive activities in fighting cancer, food safety and security, supplying water needs and other applications of the nuclear technology,” Amano said. In other words, there was no indication of progress regarding the principal disagreement between the IAEA and Iran, namely a deal allowing the IAEA to inspect Iranian nuclear sites, most specifically the Parchin research facility, where IAEA inspectors were refused entry as recently as February.
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ISIS is watching!
CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian court sentenced 12 Christians to life in prison and acquitted eight Muslims on Monday in a case set off by religious tensions in the country's south.
The Christians were found guilty of sowing public strife, the possession of illegal weapons and shooting dead two Muslims in April of last year in Minya province, about 220 kilometers (135 miles) south of Cairo.
The religious tension in Minya spilled over into violence last year when a Muslim microbus driver, angered by a speed bump outside a wealthy Christian man's villa, got into a scuffle with security guards who beat him.
After returning to his village of Abu Qurqas that evening, he rounded up the villagers who then gathered outside an ultraconservative Islamist group's main office there to protest his beating. According to rights researcher Ishak Ibrahim, the Christians nearby thought they were going to be attacked and shot from their rooftops down at the crowd, killing two and wounding two others.
For several days after, angry villagers torched dozens of Christian homes and stores.
The eight Muslims on trial in the same case had been charged with possession of illegal weapons and burning down the Christian-owned homes and stores after the shooting.
"The fact that the Muslims were acquitted means that the attorney general's investigation from the beginning was faulty and unfair because there was evidence to prove these men had burned Christian property," Ibrahim said.
The State Security Court, whose rulings cannot be appealed, handed down its sentence on Monday. The ruling military council is the only entity with the power to request a retrial.
Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's estimated 80 million people, complain that the courts and police often turn a blind eye to discrimination or violence against them. Some fear the surge of ultraconservative Islamists to power after Hosni Mubarak's overthrow last year could further curtail their rights.
. Monday, May 21, 2012
Eclipse May 21, 2012
The moon slides across the sun, showing a blazing halo of light, during an annular eclipse at a waterfront park in Yokohama, near Tokyo, Monday, May 21, 2012. Millions of Asians watched as a rare "ring of fire" eclipse crossed their skies early Monday. The annular eclipse, in which the moon passes in front of the sun leaving only a golden ring around its edges, was visible to wide areas across the continent. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
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Sunday, May 20, 2012
Friday, May 18, 2012
Thak you - Aba!
Bulgarian Jews
Removal of all the monuments in the Bulgarian forest in Israel
The former Deputy Speaker of the Bulgarian Parliament, Blagovest Sendov, and a group of four other "intellectuals" (among which a Bulgarian of Jewish descent - Angel Vagenstein) commit an act aimed against Bulgaria. They send a letter to the Israeli President asking for the removal of the monuments of all those who acted to save the Bulgarian Jews. The monuments to be removed are: HM Boris III and HM Queen Giovanna, Dimitar Peshev (Deputy of the parliament at that time), the Bulgarian Patriarch and the Bulgarian people.
The Jewish National Fund decides to appoint a commission to decide the future of the memorials. A press-release is issued.
Articles in the Bulgarian newspapers. Bulgarians and Jews of Bulgarian descent oppose the move and voice their concern that the monuments will be removed from the Bulgarian forest in Jerusalem:
Via E-mail (Dr. Paul Münch)
.Olimpics 2012
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Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon responded to the letter he received from International Olympic Committee President, Jacques Rogge rejecting his request to hold a minute silence in memory of the members of the Israeli Olympic team murdered at the Munich Olympics in 1972 during the upcoming London Olympic Games.Why?
Coz - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday he was keen to attend the 2012 London Olympics to support his country's athletes but he will not stand up during the minute silence in memory of the Zionist athletes.
http://tl.gd/hf7t3p
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London 2012 Olympics: http://goo.gl/qs5TY
IOC brokers deal between Palestine and Israel over training facilities for Games
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WTF is wrong with the Gaza Strip?
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Mohammed Morsi
Click
Subject: Pew poll of Egyptians:
61%:32 Annul treaty with Israel,
61%:21% U.S. economic aid has negative impact
[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: Note the negative perception of US aid.]
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Q74 Do you think Egypt should maintain its peace treaty with Israel or
[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: Note the negative perception of US aid.]
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Q74 Do you think Egypt should maintain its peace treaty with Israel or
do you think Egypt should annul its peace treaty with Israel?
Maintain treaty 32 - Annul treaty 61 - DK/Refused 7
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Maintain treaty 32 - Annul treaty 61 - DK/Refused 7
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QEGY1 Overall, would you say U.S. economic aid to Egypt is having a
mostly positive impact, a mostly negative impact, or no impact on the way things are going in Egypt?
Mostly positive 21 - Mostly negative 61 - No impact 17 - DK/Refused 1
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Mostly positive 21 - Mostly negative 61 - No impact 17 - DK/Refused 1
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Wednesday, May 16, 2012
"Ahlan Wa Sahlan"?
Dear Mr. Davutoglu
Support Turkey's Opposition to
Israeli Participation in NATO Summit
.Israeli Participation in NATO Summit
The Republic of Turkey has objected to the participation of the government of Israel in the upcoming NATO summit in Chicago, citing the Israeli government's failure to apologize or make restitution for its deadly raid on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in 2010, which killed Turkish citizens and an American citizen.
Join us in supporting the Republic of Turkey's position by signing the petition below.
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Ahmet Davutoglu
Foreign Minister
Republic of Turkey
Dear Mr. Davutoglu:
We write to express our support for the opposition of the Republic of Turkey to the participation of the Israeli government in the upcoming NATO meeting in Chicago
Ahmet Davutoglu
Foreign Minister
Republic of Turkey
Dear Mr. Davutoglu:
We write to express our support for the opposition of the Republic of Turkey to the participation of the Israeli government in the upcoming NATO meeting in Chicago
("Turkey says Israel not welcome at NATO summit,")
As you have noted, the Israeli government has neither apologized nor made restitution for its deadly assault on the 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla, in which Turkish citizens and an American citizen were killed. Nor has the Israeli government yet been held to account for the assault by the international community. Allowing the Israeli government to participate in the Chicago meeting would communicate to the Israeli government that it will be protected from adverse consequences when it violates international law.
As you know, there is an international campaign to promote boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against the Israeli government until it complies with international law with respect to its treatment of the Palestinians. We encourage you - and every other government - to use every opportunity to sanction the Israeli government until it complies with international law regarding its treatment of the Palestinians.
As you have noted, the Israeli government has neither apologized nor made restitution for its deadly assault on the 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla, in which Turkish citizens and an American citizen were killed. Nor has the Israeli government yet been held to account for the assault by the international community. Allowing the Israeli government to participate in the Chicago meeting would communicate to the Israeli government that it will be protected from adverse consequences when it violates international law.
As you know, there is an international campaign to promote boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against the Israeli government until it complies with international law with respect to its treatment of the Palestinians. We encourage you - and every other government - to use every opportunity to sanction the Israeli government until it complies with international law regarding its treatment of the Palestinians.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Libya cave 13k
Sabha Libya cave 13k yrs old
Professor Mori alone had identified more than 1400 prehistoric art sites. Among his famous discoveries was a Libyan mummy of a child (Gallery 4 of Assaraya Museum), thought to be at least 5400 years old. The complete mummy of a small boy, preserved in a good condition using a sophisticated and advanced technique of mummification, was found in a place called Wan Muhuggiag.
Cave Art north and west of Sabha in the desert show water animals? That could have only existed there at the end of the ice age when no people hostorically should have lived there yet The Sahara is the home of the world’s largest collection of prehistoric cave art sites: some 100,000 sites
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The longest trip to nowhere!
May 13 (Reuters) - Here is a timeline of events in Egypt since protests against former President Hosni Mubarak began.
Jan. 25, 2011 - Anti-government protests begin across Egypt following the Jan. 14 overthrow of Tunisia's president in the first of the "Arab Spring" uprisings.
Jan. 28 - Mubarak orders troops and tanks into cities to quell demonstrations. Thousands cheer at news of intervention of the army, which is widely seen as a neutral force in politics, unlike police who are regularly deployed to stifle dissent.
Jan. 31 - New government is sworn in. New vice president, Omar Suleiman, hitherto intelligence chief, says Mubarak has asked him to start dialogue with political forces.
Feb. 1 - More than a million people around Egypt call for an end to Mubarak's rule.
Feb. 4 - Thousands gather in Cairo's Tahrir Square to press again for an end to Mubarak's rule in a "Day of Departure".
Feb. 10 - Mubarak says national dialogue under way, transfers powers to vice president.
Feb. 11 - Mubarak steps down and a military council is formed to run the country's affairs.
Feb. 22 - Tantawi swears in new cabinet but Muslim Brotherhood and others want it purged of Mubarak's ministers.
March 3 - Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq resigns and military asks former Transport Minister Essam Sharaf to form cabinet.
March 19 - Big majority of Egyptians approve amendments to the constitution in referendum. The amendments are designed to pave way for parliamentary and presidential elections.
March 23 - Egypt approves law easing curbs that choked political life under Mubarak.
April 8 - Thousands protest in Tahrir Square against delays in putting Mubarak on trial.
Aug. 3 - Mubarak trial opens. Wheeled into a courtroom cage lying on a bed, Mubarak denies charges of killing protesters and abuse of power.
Oct. 9/10 - Coptic Christians turn their fury on the army after at least 25 Christians are killed when troops break up a protest. Tension between Muslims and minority Christians is not new but has heightened since the anti-Mubarak revolt.
Nov 18. - Thousands of people, frustrated with military rule, protest in Tahrir Square and in other cities.
Nov. 21 - Cabinet tenders its resignation.
Nov. 22 - Tantawi promises that a civilian president will be elected in June 2012, six months sooner than the army had planned. Tantawi confirms parliamentary elections will begin on Nov. 28 as planned.
Nov. 25 - Thousands demanding an end to military rule, pack Tahrir Square in the biggest turnout of a week of protests and violence that has killed 42 people.
-- Kamal Ganzouri is named by the ruling army council to head a national salvation cabinet. He had served as prime minister under Mubarak from 1996 to 1999.
Nov. 28 - First voting in election for the lower house. The staggered election runs through January.
Dec. 23 - Thousands of Egyptians rally in Cairo and other cities to demand that the military give up power, and vent their anger after 17 people are killed in days of protests.
Dec. 28 - Mubarak arrives in court on a hospital trolley as his trial resumes after a two month recess.
Dec. 30 - Egypt's police raid U.S.-backed pro-democracy groups, drawing criticism from Washington which hints it could review its $1.3 billion of military aid to Egypt.
Jan. 3-4, 2012 - Polls open in the third and final round of election for the lower house with the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) expected to maintain its lead.
Jan. 14 - Former International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei pulls out of the race to become president, saying "the previous regime" is still running the country.
Jan. 16 - Egypt says it has asked the IMF for $3.2 billion in support as the country tries to fill a budget gap pushed wider by almost a year of political and economic turmoil.
Jan. 23 - Parliament holds its first session after the first free elections in years. The Muslim Brotherhood's party is the biggest winner. A vote for the upper house starts in February.
March 10 - Doors open for hopefuls seeking to run in Egypt's first presidential election since Mubarak was ousted.
April 17 - Ten presidential candidates are disqualified from the presidential race, including Mubarak's former spy chief Omar Suleiman and top Muslim Brotherhood politician Khairat al-Shater. The Brotherhood fields reserve candidate Mohamed Mursi.
April 26 - Egypt's election committee announces that Ahmed Shafiq, Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister, can run for president, two days after it disqualified him.
May 2 - Eleven people are killed in clashes between anti-army protesters and unidentified armed men. Fresh clashes erupt two days later, leaving one soldier dead. Army imposes curfew on affected area around the Defence Ministry.
May 10 - Former Arab League chief Amr Moussa and moderate Islamist Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh face-off in Egypt's first presidential television debate.
May 23/24 - Voting due to start in first round of presidential election. No candidate is expected to get more than 50 percent of the vote, making a second round on June 16/17 likely. (Reporting by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit;)
Jan. 28 - Mubarak orders troops and tanks into cities to quell demonstrations. Thousands cheer at news of intervention of the army, which is widely seen as a neutral force in politics, unlike police who are regularly deployed to stifle dissent.
Jan. 31 - New government is sworn in. New vice president, Omar Suleiman, hitherto intelligence chief, says Mubarak has asked him to start dialogue with political forces.
Feb. 1 - More than a million people around Egypt call for an end to Mubarak's rule.
Feb. 4 - Thousands gather in Cairo's Tahrir Square to press again for an end to Mubarak's rule in a "Day of Departure".
Feb. 10 - Mubarak says national dialogue under way, transfers powers to vice president.
Feb. 11 - Mubarak steps down and a military council is formed to run the country's affairs.
Feb. 22 - Tantawi swears in new cabinet but Muslim Brotherhood and others want it purged of Mubarak's ministers.
March 3 - Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq resigns and military asks former Transport Minister Essam Sharaf to form cabinet.
March 19 - Big majority of Egyptians approve amendments to the constitution in referendum. The amendments are designed to pave way for parliamentary and presidential elections.
March 23 - Egypt approves law easing curbs that choked political life under Mubarak.
April 8 - Thousands protest in Tahrir Square against delays in putting Mubarak on trial.
Aug. 3 - Mubarak trial opens. Wheeled into a courtroom cage lying on a bed, Mubarak denies charges of killing protesters and abuse of power.
Oct. 9/10 - Coptic Christians turn their fury on the army after at least 25 Christians are killed when troops break up a protest. Tension between Muslims and minority Christians is not new but has heightened since the anti-Mubarak revolt.
Nov 18. - Thousands of people, frustrated with military rule, protest in Tahrir Square and in other cities.
Nov. 21 - Cabinet tenders its resignation.
Nov. 22 - Tantawi promises that a civilian president will be elected in June 2012, six months sooner than the army had planned. Tantawi confirms parliamentary elections will begin on Nov. 28 as planned.
Nov. 25 - Thousands demanding an end to military rule, pack Tahrir Square in the biggest turnout of a week of protests and violence that has killed 42 people.
-- Kamal Ganzouri is named by the ruling army council to head a national salvation cabinet. He had served as prime minister under Mubarak from 1996 to 1999.
Nov. 28 - First voting in election for the lower house. The staggered election runs through January.
Dec. 23 - Thousands of Egyptians rally in Cairo and other cities to demand that the military give up power, and vent their anger after 17 people are killed in days of protests.
Dec. 28 - Mubarak arrives in court on a hospital trolley as his trial resumes after a two month recess.
Dec. 30 - Egypt's police raid U.S.-backed pro-democracy groups, drawing criticism from Washington which hints it could review its $1.3 billion of military aid to Egypt.
Jan. 3-4, 2012 - Polls open in the third and final round of election for the lower house with the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) expected to maintain its lead.
Jan. 14 - Former International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei pulls out of the race to become president, saying "the previous regime" is still running the country.
Jan. 16 - Egypt says it has asked the IMF for $3.2 billion in support as the country tries to fill a budget gap pushed wider by almost a year of political and economic turmoil.
Jan. 23 - Parliament holds its first session after the first free elections in years. The Muslim Brotherhood's party is the biggest winner. A vote for the upper house starts in February.
March 10 - Doors open for hopefuls seeking to run in Egypt's first presidential election since Mubarak was ousted.
April 17 - Ten presidential candidates are disqualified from the presidential race, including Mubarak's former spy chief Omar Suleiman and top Muslim Brotherhood politician Khairat al-Shater. The Brotherhood fields reserve candidate Mohamed Mursi.
April 26 - Egypt's election committee announces that Ahmed Shafiq, Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister, can run for president, two days after it disqualified him.
May 2 - Eleven people are killed in clashes between anti-army protesters and unidentified armed men. Fresh clashes erupt two days later, leaving one soldier dead. Army imposes curfew on affected area around the Defence Ministry.
May 10 - Former Arab League chief Amr Moussa and moderate Islamist Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh face-off in Egypt's first presidential television debate.
May 23/24 - Voting due to start in first round of presidential election. No candidate is expected to get more than 50 percent of the vote, making a second round on June 16/17 likely. (Reporting by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit;)
Sunday, May 13, 2012
NATO - SHMATO!
(AP) BRUSSELS - Israel will not be invited to NATO's May 20-21 summit in Chicago, the alliance's top official said Friday. But he denied that alliance member Turkey had blocked Israel's participation. .
Instead, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the reason is because Israel does not participate in NATO's main military missions.News reports have claimed that Turkey blocked Israel's participation because of the raid in 2010 by Israeli troops on ships heading to Gaza in which eight Turks and a Turkish-American died.
NATO has a system of partnerships with dozens of nations across the globe such as the Mediterranean Dialogue, a NATO outreach program with seven friendly nations, including Israel.
In the past, partner nations did not usually attend the alliance's summits. But Fogh Rasmussen said 13 would do so this time.
"At the Lisbon summit (in 2010), we made clear that we would enhance dialogue and cooperation with partner nations ... because in today's world security challenges know no borders, and no country or alliance can deal with most of them on their own," he told journalists.
Two other members of the Mediterranean group, Jordan and Morocco, are among them. But Fogh Rasmussen said Israel is not because it does not participate in missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo.
"Israel has not been invited to attend the summit because Israel is neither a participant in ISAF nor in KFOR ... no one has blocked an invitation because it's not been an issue," Fogh Rasmussen said. ISAF and KFOR are acronyms for coalition forces in Afghanistan and Kosovo.
Earlier this year, Turkey scuttled a plan to include an Israeli warship in a NATO-run flotilla patrolling the Mediterranean.
In the past, Israeli warships and air force jets have joined in some NATO exercises, but Israel's participation in the naval operation would the first time its armed forces have taken part in one of the alliance's military operations.
Representatives of about 60 nations and international organizations will attend the Chicago conference. Partner nations include include Sweden, Switzerland, Qatar, Georgia, Australia and New Zealand.
Representatives of Russia and several Central Asian states also have been invited to discuss the war in Afghanistan — the summit's main focus — "because they provide important transit arrangements to the benefit of our operation," Fogh Rasmussen said.
The alliance has repeatedly said it is prepared to enhance practical cooperation with all partner nations in the region, including Israel. But some members have opposed past attempts to forge closer cooperation with the Jewish state, saying that could hurt the alliance's relations with other Muslim countries, including Afghanistan, which remains NATO's top operational priority.
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She has done it again!
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.By Dr. Nervana Mahmoud
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When Einstein created his clever theory of relativity, he focused his work on time and space. Today, political analysts have extended the application of his theory to a completely different sphere; redefining political Islam. The excitement about the Islamic spring and the potential for political Islam to embrace democracy has seduced many in the name of relativity to label some Egyptian Islamists such as presidential candidate Aboul Fetouh as ‘liberal.”.
Dr. Aboul Fetouh perceived liberalism is a good indicative of the current state of affairs in Egypt, where grey is white just because it is not black. In another words, benign conservatism is liberalism because we can swallow its milder rhetoric without feeling the urge to vomit.
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For years, the mainstream religious establishment has resisted any reform of religious thoughts. Liberal scholars who advocate Ijtihad as the way forward to reconcile traditional texts with modern day life were mocked, bullied, dismissed or even worth murdered. For example; a reformist like Gamal El-Banna (despite being the Brother of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan el-Banna) was shunned by many, Nasr abu Zayd was forced to leave the country and settle abroad until he died, and Faraj Fouda was tragically assassinated when he dared to voice different views. Many of them advocated reformation of Islamic thoughts, and tried (rightly or wrongly) to articulate different views of Sharia that protect the society without impinging on basic human rights. Sadly, these reformists’ voices were silenced in a country blurred by collective conscience.
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As a result, there are only various shades of conservative Islam within the Islamic map of Egypt. .
First, the Muslim Brotherhood:
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a- The main group: Strongly committed to the group ideology and the targets and demands under the lead of their supreme leader and the Presidential candidate the group chooses (Shater or Morsi, it doesn’t matter)b- the younger ranks who recently expressed some opposition to the group’s main chain of control and commands and demanded more freedom and flexibility. (Some of them may find Aboul Fotouh far more appealing than Morsi)
c- the wider group among the Brotherhood affiliates who endorsed the group in the parliamentary election, but they are not necessarily willing to commit to the Brotherhood and may endorse other candidates, like Aboul Fotouh, if convinced that his chances are better.
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Second, the Salafists:
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a-the hard-core Salafists: These are true followers of Salafi scholars who actually read religious text, study school of thoughts and actively involved within different Salafi parties. It seems that many of them will support their leaders endorsement of Aboul Fotouh.b- the soft-core Salafists: These make up the larger group who choose to follow their preachers out of affection and trust without exploring the details of their perspectives. Most of the main Salafi constituents fall under this category. For them, Salafism is a general loose term that means embracing literalism as a way to achieve religiosity without venturing into details. How they will choose their candidate? Will they follow Salafists parties and back Aboul Fotouh? Possibly yes, though not necessarily.
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Third, the non- brotherhood, non-Salafist Islamists:
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This wider group of none-political affiliated Egyptians who voted for Islamic candidates in the parliament but are willing to shop around before voting in the presidential election. .
Fourth, other groups like the Sufi Muslims:
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They usually focus on the spiritual aspect of the religion and are naturally declined to join in politics. Their preferred candidate is still unknown.It seems that Aboul Fotouh has scanned the Islamic map well and decided to focus on the milder version of each subgroup by adopting a more elastic rhetoric, vague, but smooth, calling for justice for all in a rather ambiguous Islamic framework. He may also appeal to non-Islamists under the pretext of his perceived liberalism, and by playing the all-inclusive card: “Trust me, I am a moderate.”
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Yesterday, in the first ever-Preseidential debate , Aboul Fotouh reinforced what he already mentioned in his manifesto, a clear commitment to Sharia, but of course he didn’t elaborate on what exactly he means. The Maqasid ( goals) of Sharia as I wrote before is a very elastic subject that raises many questions. I doubt very much that Abuoel Fetouh has even thought about embracing liberal Islamic philosophy with its rationalism and freedom of thoughts; instead, he placed stronger emphasis on the justice of Islamic law, a very appealing slogan in a country rife with corruption.
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The only hint of liberalism I detected from Aboul Fotouh was his support to the rights to change religious beliefs, however, later in the debate; he reiterated his opposition of Iran attempt to spread Shia sect of Islam in Egypt. As a liberal I find that hard to swallow, opposing the brutal Iranian regime should not be extended to rejection of Islamic inter-sect conversion.
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I wished Aboul Fetouh was quizzed about his views of Faraj Fouda & Nasr Abu Zeid, bthough I am not expecting him to embrace them, but he should at least protect the right of Muslims to voice different theological opinions without fear for their lives. No one should be murdered or persecuted for expressing controversial views in post–revolution Egypt. On several occasions, Aboul Fetouh has promised he would guarantee “Freedom of creativity” despite he has never articulated what creativity means in his opinion? I wonder how Aboul Fotouh stance regarding the elusive charge of “insulting Islam” and how he would prevent another Adel Imam saga?
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So far, Abouel Fotouh vague platform has earned him the endorsement of many from “perceived liberals” like Wael Ghonium to various Salafi groups. It is certainly true, that most of these endorsements are based on political calculation rather than ideological factors. However, the ultra-conservatives can be potential troublemakers in the future if they perceived any delays in Sharia implementation.
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Shadi Hamid described Aboul Fotouh as A Man for All Seasons and that Sharia for him “is everything and nothing all at once.” For me, that is not the description of a unifying figure, but a political hustler who are trying to appeal to wide variety of audience all at once. There are still plenty of question marks surrounding his assumed Liberalism, is it real or just a garnish for a very conservative manifesto? For now, he remains Mr. “Relative,” one who successfully proves the endless interesting applications of Einstein’s theory.
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